Farmers urge govt to distribute coconut oil in PDS as promised

TIRUCHY: Coconut farmers from Pattukkottai staged a protest on Wednesday demanding the state government to procure the nuts as the prices had crashed to unprecedented level and wanted the government to distribute coconut oil in PDS outlets.

Farmers have been staging a series of protests demanding the government to fix the price at Rs 130 for a kg of copra. Since their demands were not fulfilled, they staged a protest led by Coconut Farmers Federation district president EV Gandhi on Wednesday in front of the Thanjavur Collectorate.

The protestors wanted the state to initiate steps to procure coconut oil from farmers and distribute it to the people through the PDS outlets.

Later Gandhi told reporters that the Centre has fixed an Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 105.90 per kg of copra and the state should provide an incentive of Rs 15 in addition to the MSP and procure the copra for the entire season. A copra procurement centre should be established at Peravurani, he said.

“The state government should initiate steps to use coconut oil in all the noon meal centres and the coir should be used as an alternative to nylon and plastic ropes,” Gandhi said and added that the state government should distribute coconut oil in PDS outlets as per their promise in the election manifesto.